


The Edge

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Teasing, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 10:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11918988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: Ahch-To isn’t exactly the sort of place Lando imagined himself settling down at, but then, none of this is exactly what he imagined for his life.





	The Edge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hanorganaas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanorganaas/gifts).



> Implied 'Han lives', just because. :)

The wind on Ahch-To is sharp and cold and bites at Lando’s skin. The air always smells of salt and Lando feels like he can never shake it off himself, no matter how many times he wrings out his clothes from washing.

Ahch-To isn’t exactly the sort of place Lando imagined himself settling down at, but then, none of this is exactly what he imagined for his life.

Bespin feels a long way away.

He finds Luke on the cliff’s edge, looking out over the crashing waves.

“You gonna eat, Luke?” Lando asks.

“Maybe later.”

“If it tastes cruddy now, it’ll be even worse later.”

The corner of Luke’s mouth twitches upwards faintly. It’s the closest Lando’s seen to a smile from Luke in days, so he congratulates himself.

“I’m sure I’ll survive,” Luke says.

“Sure, you say that now.”

“I’ve survived this long on your cooking.”

“That’s fair,” Lando says. “I’ve never claimed it as a talent.”

“Though you have many,” Luke teases.

“Also fair,” Lando agrees.

Of which his greatest, Lando thinks, might be getting Luke to listen to him. It’s a feat. Honestly sometimes he is still surprised he was able to get Luke to run with him to Ahch-To, and not away from him, as he ran away from his family, his life, his responsibilities.

Lando doesn’t blame him. He understands. Damn, he understands. But he doesn’t know if it was the right choice.

Soon, Lando thinks. Soon he will get Luke to leave his forced hermitage. He is better now than he was, though Lando doesn’t like to think of what might have been, if Luke had been here alone with nothing but his grief and his guilt, stewing and brooding so far from the people who care for him and who still need him, regardless of what Luke might have convinced himself of. Luke still needs them, too, even if he won’t say so.

“You could cook, you know,” Lando suggests. “Your aunt certainly taught you more than I ever learned on the subject.”

“I could. But I like you to feel useful.”

“Oh, thanks,” Lando says, and earns another upward twitch of Luke’s mouth.

Honestly though Lando doesn’t mind the cooking. This planet is boring as hell and Lando needs something besides Luke to occupy him. And the porgs. Damn things are everywhere. Cute, sure, but pesky.

“She’s coming,” Luke murmurs, his eyes still on the distance.

“Who’s coming?” Lando asks, eyeing him in surprise. Leia? He knows they’ve got that freaky twin thing but if Leia had been able to find Luke, Lando knows she would’ve been here a hell of a lot sooner.

And man, would it have been a sight to see.

“The girl.”

“What girl?” Damn if Lando doesn’t hate it when Luke decides to go all cryptic, mystical Jedi on him.

Luke shakes his head. “The girl. The one who wants-- Oh, it doesn’t matter, you’ll see soon enough.”

“Really?”

Quirking a smile, Luke at least has the decency to look a bit wry. “It’s not important now who she is. Just… she’s like me.”

“Exasperating?”

“Well, probably.”

“And you know her how, exactly?” Lando holds up a hand. “Wait, hold that. If you’ve been chatting with your ghosts again I’d rather pretend I don’t know. Creeps me the hell out.”

“You sound like Han.”

Lando shudders theatrically. “How dare you, after everything I’ve done for you.”

They wait together, out on the cliff’s edge. Lando absently rolls a few pebbles beneath the toe of his boot and kicks them over the side, watching as they vanish down far below. He can’t actually hear the _plop_ they would make in the water, of course, but he can imagine it.

He knows the icy touch of the water and the rough power of the waves. He and Luke go swimming sometimes, close enough to the shore that it’s not terribly dangerous but still enough of a thrill and a challenge for a couple of men that it might be said are past their prime. Luke’s shaggy hair and beard make him look like some wise old hermit, like his old Ben Kenobi - or so Lando has heard - but he still looks like a drowned Tooka cat in the water, hair plastered to his skull, that same goofy grin from when Lando first knew him.

Lando knows it makes him look ridiculous, too, but somehow he has never minded looking ridiculous when it’s in front of Luke.

They can see the _Falcon_ as she soars in over the ocean. She flies smooth and sure and Lando wonders if it’s Han in the pilot’s seat. It’s been years. Lando’s not about to admit it out loud but he has missed the old pirate.

“Come on,” Luke says, and touches Lando’s elbow, turning him. “Let’s go inside.”

“You don’t wanna put out the welcome mat or something?”

“Let her find me,” Luke says, and they go inside the little stone building where they have carved out what amounts to a home on this kriffing barren rock of a planet. They sit quietly and Lando gets Luke to eat. It does taste worse now.

He is just about to ask if he should make some tea or something for their prospective visitor, rather than subject her to their leftovers, when Luke opens his mouth.

“I think maybe I’ll get my cloak.”

Lando raises an eyebrow. “What, you trying to impress her?”

“I just think I should look the part. She’s here for Master Skywalker, the Jedi.”

“I thought you came all the way here to get away from him.”

Luke looks away, his gaze far-off, lost for a moment in his thoughts or in his ghosts. Lando isn’t fond of either. “Guess it didn’t work.”

Lando thinks maybe that’s for the best, but he doesn’t want to say so. He watches Luke put on the plain, serviceable garb of the Jedi Order like he is trying to fit himself into the shoes of someone else, like he is play-acting at being Obi-Wan Kenobi and hoping the role will fit him. Lando thinks Luke has been trying to fit into the person he thinks he should be for a long time.

He wishes Luke would remember how many people love him for just being Luke, the bright-eyed farmboy from Tatooine with a heart big enough for the whole galaxy.

Luke tugs at his worn collar and Lando stands up to smooth it for him.

“Well, you look the part, anyway,” he says, letting his fingertips drag up over Luke’s neck, over his cheek, his coarse beard. “Good enough for a wide-eyed girl.”

Rolling his eyes, Luke steps outside.

Lando waits; he thinks it’s what Luke wants.

He waits and he waits and okay, yes, he is absolutely eavesdropping but he can’t hear anything and this is ridiculous. Damn what Luke wants; Lando at least prides himself on showing a guest a good time. He puts some water to boil for tea and finds a bottle of something stronger in case that really was Han piloting the _Falcon._ If not, well, Lando could use a drink himself.

Then he goes outside to meet this mysterious girl of Luke’s.

If she actually is anything like Luke, Lando won’t want to miss her.


End file.
